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Consort Yang Yuhuan (1 June 719 — 15 July 756 CE), often known as Yang Guifei (Guifei being the highest rank for imperial consorts during her time), known briefly by the Taoist nun name Taizhen, is famous as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China.<br/><br/> She was the beloved consort of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang during his later years. During the Anshi Rebellion, as Emperor Xuanzong was fleeing from the capital Chang'an to Chengdu, she was killed because his guards blamed the rebellion on her powerful cousin Yang Guozhong and the rest of her family.<br/><br/> The story of Yang Guifei and the poem also became highly popular in Japan and served as sources of inspiration for the classical novel 'The Tale of Genji' which begins with the doomed love between an emperor and a consort, Kiritsubo, who is likened to Consort Yang.<br/><br/> A Japanese rumour states that Lady Yang was rescued, escaped to Japan and lived her remaining life there. In Japanese, she is known as Yokihi.
Chobunsai Eishi (1756–1829) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. Born to a well-off samurai family that was part of the Fujiwara clan, Eishi left his employ with the Shogun Ieharu to pursue art. His early works were mostly bijin-ga portraits of beautiful women in a style akin to Kiyonaga and Utamaro.<br/><br/> He was a prolific painter, and from 1801 gave up print designing to devote himself to painting.
Oiran (花魁) were the courtesans of Edo period Japan. The oiran were considered a type of yūjo (遊女) 'woman of pleasure' or prostitute. However, they were distinguished from the yūjo in that they were entertainers, and many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts. Their art and fashions often set trends among the wealthy and, because of this, cultural aspects of oiran traditions continue to be preserved to this day.<br/><br/> The oiran arose in the Edo period (1600–1868). At this time, laws were passed restricting brothels to walled districts set some distance from the city center. In the major cities these were the Shimabara in Kyoto, the Shinmachi in Osaka, and the Yoshiwara in Edo (present-day Tokyo).<br/><br/> These rapidly grew into large, self-contained 'pleasure quarters' offering all manner of entertainments. Within, a courtesan’s birth rank held no distinction, which was fortunate considering many of the courtesans originated as the daughters of impoverished families who were sold into this lifestyle as indentured servants. Instead, they were categorized based on their beauty, character, education, and artistic ability.<br/><br/> Among the oiran, the tayū (太夫) was considered the highest rank of courtesan and were considered suitable for the daimyo or feudal lords. In the mid-1700s courtesan rankings began to disappear and courtesans of all classes were collectively known simply as 'oiran'.<br/><br/> The word oiran comes from the Japanese phrase oira no tokoro no nēsan (おいらの所の姉さ) which translates as 'my elder sister'. When written in Japanese, it consists of two kanji, 花 meaning 'flower', and 魁 meaning 'leader' or 'first', hence 'Leading Flower' or 'First Flower'.
Emperor Ingyō (允恭天皇 Ingyō-tennō) was the 19th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 410–453.<br/><br/> Emperor Ingyo's empress is named Oshisaka no Ōnakatsu no Hime in the Japanese annals. Princess Sotori Hime was the concubine of the Emperor Ingyo, so named for the beauty of her skin which seemed to radiate through her robes. Later accounts associated her with the deity Tamatsushima Myojin, enshrined at Wakanoura in Kii Province, and venerated her as one of the three gods of poetry together with Kakimoto no Hitomaro and Yamabe no Akahito.<br/><br/> According to the <i>Nihon Shoki</i> written in 720, Princess Sotori lived in seclusion in the Fujiwara Shrine out of deference to the Empress. The Emperor decided to visit her there in secret, but even before he arrived the Princess had divined that he was coming by noticing a spider building its web in the roots of a dwarf bamboo plant.
Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829) was a Japanese <i>ukiyo-e</i> artist. Born Hosoda Tokitomi to a well-off samurai family from the prestigious Fujiwara clan, Eishi became family head when his father died in 1772, and from there he held a position in the palace of Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu.<br/><br/> Eishi appeared to have studied art under Kano Michinobu of the Kano school, and he left the official service of the Shogun in 1784 to pursue his artistic talents, giving up his samurai rank. His earliest works were <i>nishki-e</i> prints of literary fare such as 'The Tale of Genji', but he soon went to specialise in <i>bijinga</i> portraits of women. Eishi also occasionally illustrated books of <i>shunga</i> erotica. He abandoned woodblock printing for painting sometime after 1801.